Results!

On Monday, I returned home to La Campa after the MCC Honduras team retreat. All 20 of us gathered in Tela (on the Carribean coast) for a few days of fellowship, sharing, swimming and relaxing together. I had a wonderful time with them, but at the end I had to make my first goodbyes in preparation for leaving Honduras, as I won't be seeing some of them again.

I am back home, and back at the office, but the office is strangely silent. CASM has 7 or 8 offices throughout Honduras, but each office is in charge of its own funding and projects, with guidance from a central office. The main source of funding for CASM La Campa expired at the end of April, and no new source has been found yet (despite having known that it was a 3-year project, scheduled to end April 2011). However, this means that only one of my colleagues is actually receiving an income for the work he is doing. The rest are working part-time as volunteers, including the director of the office.

So two colleagues are considering working every other week, and one is coming in as needed. The caretaker is still coming in every day to keep the chickens fed, the plants watered, and the weeds down. But there have already been a few days when nobody has come to the office, and as I have no keys to enter....

On the plus side, today I finally received the results of my soil samples!!!! Two months after they promised I would receive them, but at least they arrived! So this is a very positive note. Also positive is the interest that another community has shown in soil analysis. I shall just have to pester the lab daily to ensure a prompt analysis of their samples!

Pictures

Let me take advantage of the good internet connection to post some pictures from the trip Lexie and I took to Guatemala.

On our first full day in Guatemala, Lexie and I climbed this volcano, Pacaya. It is active (you can see steam coming out of the top).

Antigua, Guatemala has many churches. This is La Merced, which was beautiful. I hope you can see the intricate white painting which highlights the carved patterns. The church is flying a purple flag for Lent.

Antigua has suffered numerous earthquakes, so there are also many churches in ruins. Here I am standing next to parts of the ceiling. The rubble raised the floor level at least 2 meters above where it used to be.

We spent a few days in Panajachel, on the Lago de Atitlan. There are many towns on the lake, and regular boats connect them. We took a boat to Santiago de Atitlan, on the far side of the lake.

Guatemala is known for its beautiful fabrics. The markets in Santiago were amazing. This is the tourist market. We also went to the local market, where we were able to purchase fabric that hadn't already been made into something. The bargaining was interesting, as the vendors talked to each other in a Mayan language, Lexie and I conversed in English, and the bargaining was in Spanish.

During the time we were in Panajachel, it was unseasonably rainy and cloudy. Three volcanos surround the lake, but we only got slight views through the mists.

Travelling and Staying

Sometimes, as I walk down the road in La Campa, I am amazed and wonder that I really am here, despite having called it home since September. Here in rural Honduras. Here, where I skirt around dogs, horses, cows, chickens, and everything that they leave behind in order to have that walk down the road. Here, where the mountains surround the valley with beauty. Here, where the church is at the centre of the community, and its bells call people together. I notice my town more if I go away for a while, or if somebody comes to visit. Both have happened in the past two weeks, with much enjoyment.

Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is a holiday in most of Honduras and the rest of Central America. As the office was closed, I took my vacation time and merged it with my friend Lexie’s visit. We decided to spend this week in Guatemala, in Antigua and Panajachel. I was curious to see what differences I could notice between Guatemala and Honduras, and I did notice several, including:

• Higher and steeper mountains in Guatemala, including the presence of active volcanoes
• More and better terracing of fields on hillsides in Guatemala
• Greater prevalence of indigenous clothing and culture in Guatemala (in this case, Mayan)
• Many more private tour agencies in Guatemala
• Having to bargain in Guatemala, whereas in Honduras, nearly everything except taxis is a fixed price (as I can’t bargain well, the fixed price is nice!)

We spent the first several days in Antigua, which was beautiful and very tourist oriented. One of the Semana Santa traditions in many cities is to make intricate sawdust carpets in the street which get walked on by the processions which follow. I do not have any pictures, but if you look here ( ) you can get an idea of what they were like. Antigua was also full of old churches which had been destroyed during many previous earthquakes. We wandered through ruins of cathedrals, convents and monasteries which are scattered throughout town.

There are several volcanoes surrounding Antigua, and we decided it would be a fun idea to climb one of them. So we joined a guide, and hiked up! It was beautiful and unearthly! We couldn’t make it to the very top, as last year’s eruption made it unsafe, but we got to walk over the lava field and feel the heat radiating up.

We also spent some time in Panajachel, which is on Lago de Atitlán. This large lake is surrounded by three volcanoes and is said to be extremely beautiful. We were there during an unseasonable time of rain and cloud, and could not see the lake in all its glory. But we did take a boat across the lake to another town, where we accidentally joined a Maundy Thursday procession, and bankrupted ourselves buying Mayan fabrics.

As no buses run on Good Friday, we had to take advantage of the many tour agencies, and join in a private shuttle bus to get to Guatemala City. The difference between the private shuttles and the local buses is astronomical. The price was way more than doubled, there was air conditioning, we were dropped off at our hotel door, there were only foreigners, and there was lots of leg space. But it was boring. The local buses play loud music, squash three (or more) people into a seat, are very cheap, take a bit longer, but give wonderful and colourful experiences. We made it to the city in time to see the Good Friday procession.

This procession was wonderful to experience. Hundreds of men in black robes formed the procession, carrying the Stations of the Cross, playing funeral marches in the two bands, or just marching in the procession. The largest ‘float’ was carried by 60 men, and was Jesus in the tomb. Women, also in black, carried images of the pains of Mary. It was a full experience, with sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. We awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of another procession moving through the streets.

On Saturday we travelled for 11 hours, but made it back to La Campa before dark! Our goal was to be in my home community for Easter Sunday, and we were. The service was full, as all the parts that had been left out during Lent were now brought back: incense and gloria and gifts before the altar.

We spent most of the following week in La Campa, as I had to teach and work. Our time here was very tranquilo and very pleasant. After a quick visit to the Mayan ruins in Copán Ruinas, Lexie flew home, and I took the series of local buses that got me home, just in time to prepare exams for my grade 4, 5 and 6 English classes. I don’t approve of a week of exams for kids this young; many of them are quite stressed out. I think that well-spaced smaller tests would be better. The exams were this morning, so we'll see what the results will be!